Narrow Gauge Coaches/Behind the Scenes
Background Information The Railway Series There are several narrow gauge coaches seen throughout the Railway Series created by Wilbert Awdry. There are 9 known named coaches. They first appeared in the Railway Series book, Four Little Engines, which was published in 1955. Their last appearance was in New Little Engine, published in 1996. File:RuthLucyillustratedbyGunvorandPeterEdwards.png|Agnes, Ruth, Lucy and Jemima File:AdaJaneMabel.png|Ada, Jane and Mabel File:GertrudeMillicentillustratedbyEdgarHodges.png|Gertrude and Millicent File:SkarloeyRailwaySaloonCoaches.png|Saloon Coaches File:MidSodorRailwayCoaches.png|Mid Sodor Railway Coaches File:TalyllynRailwayCoachesRWS.png|Talyllyn Railway coaches File:FfestiniogRailwayCoaches.png|Ffestiniog Railway coaches The coaches are based on carriages servicing the Talyllyn, Corris, Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways. These coaches (with exception of the Talyllyn coaches) do not appear in the television series adaptation, Thomas & Friends. However, these coaches form the basis of several other coaches on the Skarloey and Mid Sodor Railways. Television Series In 1995, the narrow gauge coaches were introduced in the fourth series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. Three varations of coaches were made; blue and cream coaches, red coaches with yellow stripes, and green and cream coaches. They replaced the roles of Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima, Beatrice, Ada, Jane, Mabel, Gertrude and Millicent in the televised adaptations of the Skarloey Railway stories from the Railway Series. While all the narrow gauge coaches in the Railway Series were female, any instance of the coaches in the television series being referred to in gender-specific pronouns were removed and omitted. This could of been a result of sexism allegations centred around the fact that the engines were almost invariably male, while the coaches were always female which surfaced in the 1980s. Britt Allcroft, the producer of the television series, claimed that gender issues were irrelevant. These coaches reappeared in sixth series but were no longer depicted with faces. The seventh series introduced the Refreshment Coach. They last appeared in the twelfth series. Following the show's transition to CGI, these coaches were later replaced with ones that resembled the coaches on the Talyllyn Railway when the Skarloey Railway was reintroduced in 2012. Coaches based on the Glyn Valley Tramway coaches were added in 2018. Behind the Scenes Awdry's models The Reverend Wilbert Awdry built OO9 scale models of the Skarloey Railway coaches (Agnes, Ruth, Lucy and Jemima). These models are now on display at the Narrow Gauge Museum in Tywyn, Wales, UK located near the Talyllyn Railway along with the other Skarloey Railway engines and rolling stock . Awdry also built OO9 scale model of the Mid Sodor Railway Coaches for his layout. The models were donated by Awdry and put on display at the Reverend Teddy Boston's Cadeby Light Railway in Cadeby, Leicestershire, before the railway finally closed in 2005. These models are now in possession of the Awdry family . File:AwdryAgnesModel.jpg|The Rev W. Awdry's Agnes model at Tywyn File:AwdryJemimaModel.jpg|The Rev W. Awdry's Jemima model at Tywyn Theduke.png|Awdry's model of Duke and the Mid Sodor Railway coaches Awdry'sModelUlfsteadRoad.jpg O gauge models (Small scale) These models were scratch-built to run on O gauge gauge track to the Gauge 1 Scale Standard during production of the fourth series. Three varations of coaches were made; blue and cream coaches, red coaches with yellow stripes, and open green and cream coaches. 4 of each of the 3 set of coaches were made. The coaches were designed by art director, Robert Gauld-Galliers, who based them off real narrow gauge coaches. Like Annie and Clarabel, these coaches had the embedded faces and matched their paint schemes. The face ends were held on with black-tak, allowing them to be detachable. The faceplates were made from Plasticard and depicted various facial expressions. These coaches were made of resin. The original pattern for the sides was molded so that multiple casts could be reproduced. So in effect, only one side and one end was made from scratch as a pattern. The side patterns included buffer beams and solebars. The wheels came from Slater's standard split spoke wagon wheels. The coach roofs were made of both resin and wood. The coaches used Coopercraft buffers shortened to about half their original length. The blue coaches resemble the livery of the coaches seen in the Railway Series, however they had much larger faces and their front and back were completely blue. Whenever the green coaches had faces, their ends were entirely cream-coloured. However, if they did not have faces, the green stripe on their sides was continued onto their ends. The roofs were removable, this made it accessible for human figurines to be place inside the open coaches. Alternate variations of each type of coach were made with lower bufferbeams to accommodate with engines such as Skarloey and Peter Sam who had abnormally low rear buffers. As the Narrow Gauge engine models did not have enough space, a lot of some of the blue and red coaches had holes drilled underneath the chassis for the cables connecting to engine's eye mechanism receivers The green and cream coaches could not hide the receiver and batteries for the engine's eye mechanisms. Usually a covered coached appeared before the green coach. In the case of Duke, as he had a tender to store his receiver and batteries, there was no need to always have a covered coach behind him . The glass was a thin sheet of clear plastic glued on the inside. During night time sequences, the covered coaches had battery-powered lights inside them. Defusing paper was also taped inside the windows to soften the light coming through it. Coaches with faces File:BlueNarrowGaugeCoachesModel.png|Blue coaches File:RedNarrowGaugeCoachesModel.png|Red coaches File:Greennarrowgaugecoaches2.png|Green and cream coaches Coaches without faces File:BlueNarrowGaugeCoachesModel1.png File:RedNarrowGaugeCoachesModel1.png File:GreenNarrowGaugeCoachesModel1.png Coaches with low bufferbeams File:LowBufferbeamCoach1.png File:LowBufferbeamCoach2.png File:LowBufferbeamCoach3.png The small scale models were predominantly used in the fourth series. They were also used in the fifth series for in between shots where they would interact with the gauge 1 scaled characters and sets. The coaches have also appeared via stock-footage in the seventh series. Three small-scale models of the blue narrow gauge coaches, three green coaches and one red coach are now in possession of Twitter user ThomasTankMerch. Two of the green coaches and the red coach were restored by ThomasTankMerch. File:ThomasTankMerchNarrowGaugeCoaches.jpeg|Coaches preserved by ThomasTankMerch File:Season4CoachWithFace.jpg|One of the coaches owned by ThomasTankMerch File:GreenCoach.jpg|A green coach owned by ThomasTankMerch O gauge models (Large scale) The narrow gauge coaches were upscaled in production of the fifth series to be compatible with the large scale narrow gauge models introduced in the previous series. These models were built to a larger scale than the gauge 1 engines and rolling stock and ran on O gauge track. They were close to 16mm scale, but slightly larger . The covered coaches windows where now clear and the coaches' roofs were removable, thus making it accessible for human figurines to be place inside all coaches. Alternate variations of each type of coach were made with lower bufferbeams to accommodate with engines such as Skarloey who had abnormally low buffers. However, unlike their small scale counterparts, the models were never depicted with faces. These coaches were made of resin. The original pattern for the sides was molded so that multiple casts could be reproduced. So in effect, only one side and one end was made from scratch as a pattern. The wheels were sourced from Slater's Plastikard. There were originally going to be faces for their large-scale models. However, they were never shown on-screen in the television series. Only two large-scale faces, each for the red and blue coaches respectively, are known to have been created . File:NGlargescalefaces.jpg|Unused large scale faces These models were used exclusively throughout the sixth to twelfth series. Standard type of narrow gauge coaches File:BlueNarrowGaugeCoachesModel3.png|Blue coaches File:RedNarrowGaugeCoachesModel3.png|Red coaches File:GreenNarrowGaugeCoachesModel3.png|Green coaches Coaches with low bufferbeams File:LowBufferbeamCoach4.png File:LowBufferbeamCoach5.png File:LowBufferbeamCoach6.png In the seventh series episode, The Refreshment Lady's Tea Shop, two models of the Refreshment Coach appears; a dipladated version and the another model represented the coach in its current condition. These models were recycled from 2 red coaches respectively. The dilapidated model was later reused in the ninth series as set dressing. File:TheRefreshmentLady'sTeaShop36.png|The dilapidated coach File:TheRefreshmentLady'sTeaShop47.png|The Refreshment Coach Close-up models Larrger scale models of the blue and red coaches were built during production of the fourth series. These were required for scenes where the coaches had to interact with the close-up scale figures. These models were able to be dismantled and resembled for use of interior shots. Furthermore, the close-up scale models were usually not built as complete models. Blue coaches Unlike the O gauge counterparts, the blue coach's close-up model never had windows and was painted completely blue. This model only appeared in the fourth series. File:Rock'n'Roll31.png|A blue coach behind Duncan File:SpecialFunnel42.png File:PassengersandPolish43.png Red coaches The red coach appeared in series 4, 9, 10 and 11. A standard gauge red coach was actually reused as a red coach in the eleventh series episode, Duncan Does it All. Inside the coach, two London Midland and Scottish Railway posters are seen in the tenth series episode, A Smooth Ride. File:FourLittleEngines48.png|A red coach behind Skarloey File:TunefulToots25.png File:ASmoothRide56.png File:DuncanDoesItAll20.png|A standard gauge red coach reused as a narrow gauge one Green and cream coaches The green and cream coach was built as a complete model. Posters of the "Coronation Scot" on the LMS and one for "Battle of Britain" on the Southern Railway are seen inside the coach. It appeared in Series 7 and 9. File:RheneasandtheRollerCoaster44.png|A green and cream coach File:RheneasandtheRollerCoaster42.png File:MightyMac58.png File:MightyMac85.png File:MightyMac95.png File:MightyMac25.jpg CGI models In 2009, the series introduced Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. Both types of narrow gauge coaches were created from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios in 2012 for production of Series 16. The models were "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software Instead of reintroducing the pre-existing coaches, they were replaced with coaches resembling the ones featured on the Talyllyn Railway. These coaches are out of scale, being too long and too tall. In the twenty-second series episode Counting on Nia, a new coach design which was based off the Glyn Valley Tramway coaches was introduced into the series. This type of coach was also created by Nitrogen Studios. File:SkarloeyRailwayCoachesCGI.png|Talyllyn Railway coaches File:GlynValleyTramwayCoachesCGI.png|Glyn Valley Tramway coaches Voice Actors Blue Coaches: * Hideo Ishikawa * Yasunori Masutani Red Coaches: * Nobuhiko Kazama * Yasuhiro Takato References Category:Behind the Scenes Category:Images of Skarloey Railway coaches Category:Images from behind the scenes